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Friday, 17 September 2010

Getting Boys Reading - Competition!

I don't know about anyone else but I have found Gareth Malone's Extraordinary School for Boys for fascinating and scary. Why are boys on the whole so far behind girls at reading? Is it society as a whole that is letting them down or is it down to individual families to get their sons reading?

As a mother of a boy and an Usborne children's book seller I really feel I need to do my bit to encourage boys to read. My daughter is a real bookworm having followed my example of curling up in bed with a book at bedtime. I read bedtime stories to both my children at night and love to read with them at any time. My son is slightly less happy to sit with a book than his sister but loves going to the library.

The programme showed that dads reading themselves or reading to their sons gives boys a boost and encourages them to do it themselves. I am going to have to rely on my dad to provide this example. Luckily he is also a book lover and hopefully this will rub off on my son.

So to do my little bit for boys literacy I am going to give away a boy friendly book to one lucky commenter on this post! Simply post your idea for getting boys reading and state what age boy you would like a book for... At the end of the next episode of Extraordinary School for Boys I will choose a winner at random.

The winner will get a book up to a maximum value of £5.99 from the stunning range of Usborne books. To check these out go to my Usborne website. Good luck and let's get our boys reading!

My son loved me reading to him, even when he was in his early teens and he is certainly still a big reader as he heads off to Uni! However, his dad reads very little, and my daughter is following in his footsteps...

Becky I didn't see the programme but it sounded interesting. May be an iplayer search.

As a mom of two boys and an Usborne seller like yourself. I have two boys that love reading. I'm a proud mom to say both are reading well above their current ages. I'm sure that both myself & my husbannd's love of reading has helped. We both take time to read to our boys. Also that we are not frightened or deter both boys from buying books.

But I think what does deter boys from reading is that many schools, including ours do not hear children read and it is left to parents who want to help there children to progress. As it is left to parents, it is a shame for those children that want to read but parents who just can't be bothered to listen to their child.

My little boy is two and he and his dad loves reading bedtime stories together. We are also watching Gareth's programme with fascination and horror. Apparently boys learn better outside, so we try to encourage this as much as possible.

Maps are great for boys and reading, espeically ones with pirate treasure! We are lucky in that both the boys are readers, it is great now that Maxi reads all the signs in the supermarket and on the road signs and Mini isnt far behind

My l4 month old son seems to enjoy books. He loves looking at his "touchy" books and "lift the flap" books. I think the key is to make reading fun. Lots of bouncy, rhyming texts and interaction. His 7 year old sister loves to read books to him although it can sometimes lead to a battle due to his over zealous page turning! @wendymcd83